Most indigenous tribal people of India refer
to themselves as Adivasi (literally: first inhabitants). This
term of choice also the one that is used in almost all matters
of public discourse about tribal peoples – from school textbooks
to government documents and newspaper accounts to academic scholarship.
The only exception to this more or less universal rule is the
Sangh Parivar and all those who are ideologically committed to Hindutva. The term of choice for them is “vanvasi”
(forest dwellers) as opposed to “adivasi” (first inhabitants).

Historically, the adivasi’s have been
marginalized from the mainstream of Indian society through the
caste system. Adivasi’s have been traditionally treated
as outside the caste structure and are seen as entirely impure
from within the Brahminic caste order. Adivasi societies, in turn,
consider themselves distinct from the majority Hindu population
of India, as well as from most other organized forms of religion.
In post-independence India, the State has further marginalized
adivasi communities through a systematic process of alienating
them from their lands and resources in the name of “progress”
and “development.”

The Sangh Parivar’s efforts to recast
adivasi’s as vanvasi’s is a critical component of
their ideological project. Their project of “Hindu Rashtra”
rests on a claim of Hindus being indigenous to India and any other
claimants to that slot, as Adivasis are, fundamentally challenges
their project of a Hindu Nation. For instance according to an
analysis appearing in Indian Express:

The reason why the Sangh denies Adivasis
the status of the original dwellers is that it runs counter
to its own claim that the Aryans, who brought Vedic civilization
to the country, are the original inhabitants of the land.[129]

Adivasi communities have been especially weakened
in the last century through imposed religious divisions, first
by large scale Christian missionary activity—mostly peaceful
and welfare based though often also patronizing; and more recently
by the Sangh Parivar which has arrogated to itself the authority
to control the lives of the adivasis and is engaged in a massive
drive to ‘bring back’ the tribals into the fold of
Hinduism—using everything from vicious attacks by thugs
under the name of protecting Hinduism to setting up organizations
that purport to work for tribal welfare and education.

The Sangh Parivar has set up a plethora of
organizations that focus on tribal areas. Some of the prominent
ones are:

Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram

Ekal Vidyalaya

Sewa Bharati

Vivekananda Kendra

Bharat Kalyan Pratishthan

Friends of Tribal Society

All of the above organizations are active
in the tribal areas and all have received the IDRF funding. The
remainder of this Appendix will explicate with brief examples
how these IDRF funded institutions work in their attempts to “bring
back” adivasis into Hindu fold.

The objectives of the Sangh organizations
working among the adivasis are two fold: to ‘bring them
back’ to Hindu faith and to ‘check’ the conversions
to Christianity. This vision is laid out clearly in many RSS texts.
For instance, in “RSS: Widening Horizons”, an RSS
publication, the origins of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, an IDRF
funded body is laid out clearly:

The systematic alienation of the tribals…who
form an inseparable part of the Hindu society through proselytization
was another grave challenge that demanded immediate corrective
measures…. They had all along been a most exploited lot
and an easy prey for unscrupulous conversion by Christian missionaries.
It is to counter this twin menace of British legacy,
that the Bharateeya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (BKVA) was founded
in early fifties. …Over the decades, the Ashram
has succeeded not only in putting a stop to conversions in all
its areas of operation, but also in bringing the converts back
to the Hindu fold. (emphasis added).[130]

Note the twin objectives: to halt Christian
conversion and to ‘bring back’ adivasis into Hindu
fold. The first objective by itself is incomplete for the project
of Hindutva. It is in this core area of ideological work (religious
‘reconversion’) that a significant part of IDRF’s
energies and funds are put to work. In IDRF’s own words
in speaking of one of their 'NGO partners' [131]

The objective of Vidharba Vanavasi
Kalyan Ashram is to bring the vanavasis (Tribals) in
the national main stream by generating awareness about their
ancestral (Hindu) fold…and to guard them against the anti
social and anti national elements… (emphasis added).

In the above IDRF documentation of the work
it supports the ideological parameters are laid out even more
clearly. First, the task of bringing adivasis ‘back’
into Hindu fold is seen as bringing them into a national mainstream
– i.e, the national mainstream in this definition is a Hindu
one, perfectly in tune with the idea of a Hindu Rashtra and further,
the “anti-national” elements are the Christians –
thus underscoring the idea of a nation for Hindus as the core
project of Hindutva. This ideological core of work among adivasis
is a repeated trope in Hindutva writings. Mohan Joshi, the Joint
Secretary to the VHP for instances comments on Muslim and Christian
converts as follows[132],

[T]hey always try to increase their
numerical strength. They deliberately jeer at the Hindu gods
and goddesses, Hindu values and Hindu culture…. Along
with the disrespect to [Hindu] religion disrespect to nation
also gets generated. Conversion from religion means conversion
of allegiance from State also…

Thus under the guise of tribal welfare and
education what is undertaken by most IDRF funded Sangh organizations
is an intense religious reconversion program. Sewa Bharati, another
the IDRF partner, says in one of its reports on the IDRF website:

To cultivate faith in our religion in
the minds of Tribals Sewa Bharati has picked up 23 Tribal youths
and 4 tribal girls, they were sent to Ayodhya to undergo training
in 'Shri RamKatha Pravachan' (discourses of Ramayan). This training
lasted 8 months under the guidance of special Saints and Mahatmas.
Now 'Anubhav Varga' has been formed at Jashpur Nagar, from where
groups of two will visit 5 days in each five villages. They
will live in the villages and propagate 'RamKatha.' [133]

Not only is it important to note that Ramkathas
have little to do with Adivasi traditions, but equally critical
is to understand the spread of this Sangh operation. In the case
of the Sewa Bharati example above, tribal youth are being relocated
for religio-ideological training and then being sent back to their
communities. A news report about Ekal Vidyalayas, another IDRF
grantee gives another testimony to the spread of this work:

Such schools …[are] being run
in remote forest areas and north-eastern states with the aim
of creating awareness among the tribals and the poor and preventing
their conversion to Christianity by missionaries.[134]

Thus, the IDRF funded operations of Sewa Bharati,
Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams and Ekal Vidyalayas, are only nominally
development/welfare organizations but far more cogently adivasi
reconversion institutions. It is also important to note that this
ideological work is seen as central to the immediate real political
gains of the Sangh.

F. 2 Every Adivasi Counts: The Electoral
End of Tribal Reconversion

While the IDRF, like the Sangh claims to be
non-political, the stated goal of the Sangh Parivar is to get
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into power—a prerequisite
for the creation of a Hindu Rashtra (a Hindu Nation). The Sangh
organizations working with the tribal populations are also mindful
of this goal and are doing their bit to achieve it.
A report following elections in Gujarat states,

The Bharatiya Janata Party, without
mincing words, accepted on Friday that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad
and Bajrang Dal, groups accused of anti-Christian violence in
tribal areas about a year ago, helped the party’s foray
into the tribal areas. … Congress leader Vishnu Pandya
says that the BJP’s victory in the tribal region has not
come all of the sudden. "The Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad (a
RSS wing), VHP and the Bajrang Dal have been working strategically
to outscore the Congress in its stronghold..[135]

Another newspaper report on the plans for
setting up more Ekal Vidyalayas in Gujarat by the VHP had this
candid confession from the VHP functionary in the area:

We are just imitating our Bihar experience
where the BJP could make inroads because of such schools run
by the VHP in the Jharkhand region,” Kaushik Patel, a
parishad leader, said…. According to [the] VHP leader,
the positive impact of these Ekal Vidyalays—which aim
to bring tribals into the Hindu fold—will be evident in
the next general elections... Pointing out that the experiment
has been a huge success in Bihar, he said the VHP has already
made inroads in tribal Gujarat, once considered a Congress stronghold.[136]

Thus, a long term ideological project of Hindu reconversions, in itself a violent ideology (of a Hindu Rashtra)
meets with the possibility of immediate electoral gains. There
is no better ground for the creation of communal tensions and
violence than such as lethal mix of ideological work and electoral
politics.

The effects of Hinduization drives, funded
systematically by IDRF, are the constant production of communal
tension and violence. We have already documented the spread of
violence by IDRF funded organizations in the main report and in
appendix A. Thus, this section will be brief and serve merely
as a reminder to conclusions that have already been argued for.

The Sangh Parivar’s actions in tribal
areas, as elsewhere, are accompanied by a spread of literature
full of hatred towards minorities.

An example from the literature for the Kalyanashram
at Sidumbar, an IDRF grantee states,

The Muslims are also trying to create
chaos in these communities, either by enticing these tribals
or by raping the tribal girls by force…The Kalyanashram
at Sidumbar is trying to put a stop to these activities of Muslims
as well as Christians…The workers…are required to
give a tough fight to the Christian Missionaries because they
keep on harassing the local residents. [137]

Note how the invocation of Muslims as violent
is left entirely unsubstantiated and is essentially thrown into
the framework of anti-Christian missionary work. This thematic
continues consistently with other IDRF funded organizations. A
report on the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram’s school in Waghai (supported
by IDRF) goes as follows:

AMONG THE GREAT HINDU warriors of this
millennium, few rival Shivaji, the 17th-century leader who battled
invading Mughal armies … So it's no surprise to find a
fresco of Shivaji gracing the entrance to the Dandkarniya Vanavasi
School in Waghai, a remote town in the western state of Gujarat.
Set in a quiet forest, the private institution appears to be
an ideal place to study - except that its 28 pupils don't seem
to be getting a very fair education. Many of the boys are too
young to realize it, but…[a] short Hindi poem inscribed
under Shivaji's portrait affords a glimpse of what the students
learn. "If it weren't for Shivaji," the ballad goes,
"we would all be circumcised." The message: Shivaji
saved Hindus from being forcibly converted to Islam….Most
of the students at Dandkarniya, for instance, used to be first-generation
Christians. "Now they are all Hindus," smiles Bacchubhai Vasava, a young RSS leader who runs the school. [138]

Of course the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram activists
have little time for details such as the fact that the Mughal
army had Hindu generals and the Maratha army Muslim generals.
For them, the anti-miority violence is an essential part of the
strategy to bring tribals ‘back’ into Hindu fold.
An editorial on the anti-Christian violence in the Dangs, Gujarat
confirms this:[139]

[O]fficials affirm that there was no
overt hostility towards the community till two years ago. This
period, not coincidentally, saw resurgence in aggressive Hindu
mobilization. At the forefront of this campaign has been Swami Aseemanand, a member of the Vanvasi Kalyan
Parishad, an organization
allied to the Sangh Parivar [and associated with the IDRF].
He has been quoted as saying that "Dangs cannot know peace
so long as even a single tribal remains Christian". The
swami has been actively reconverting tribals in the area. Unfortunately,
this propagation of Hinduism has gone hand in hand with a hate
campaign against Christians.

The documentary Fishers of Men [140]
documents the terrorization of the Christian community in one
village in Madhya Pradesh by the workers from the Vanvasi Kalyan
Ashram, Jashpur (again funded by the IDRF). The Christians describe
the harassment, and one of the priests speaks on film:

The main problem faced by the Christians
Adivasis here is mental harassment from outside agencies. The
reason for this mental harassment is the campaign of misinformation
launched against them. I have said before that Dilip Singh Judev
[of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, Jashpur] takes out processions
and other events and programmes at which he spreads anti Christian
propaganda that these people are harmful to us as well as the
nation that they are removed from the mainstream that they are
working towards the creation of a non-Hindu nation. With this
kind of propaganda against us definitely there is a distance
that develops between us. They feel that we are not good citizens
this surely causes us a lot of mental turmoil.

The documentary later goes on to document
the tragic case of a Christian Adivasi beaten to death by a frenzied
Hindu mob, which accused him of destroying a Hindu (Shiva) Temple.
Kripa Prasad Singh, a functionary of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram,
Jashpur is captured on film with the following analysis of the
painful event:

It was just the reaction of a local
village because it was a sentimental matter. So, they [the Hindus]
got together and did the deed. Every society has their unity
so they got together and did it.

Over there, there was a 150-year-old
Shiva temple, which these [the Christian] people went and destroyed.
Now if you go and destroy our heritage...go on breaking our
temples in this manner and if you expect us to sit quietly and
watch...we will not tolerate it… We are not sitting at
home wearing bangles.

Thus, IDRF funded Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams
are at the forefront of a violent campaign to reassert Hindu
identity and ‘reconvert’ adivasis to Hinduism. Violence
is justified in this strategy in part because the ‘reconversion’
are so central to Sangh ideology’s very sustenance and
also because the process of regaining this Hindu Rashtra is
embedded within a rhetoric of regaining a lost manhood.

Way back in July, we did a story on the RSS links of the IDRF-funded organisations that elicited vociferous denials from the RSS and IDRF. An independent report released to the press on Nov 20 seeks now to conclusively and comprehensively establish that IDRF is `a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India`. Full text.

Way back in July, we did a story on the RSS links of the IDRF-funded organisations that elicited vociferous denials from the RSS and IDRF. An independent report released to the press on Nov 20 seeks now to conclusively and comprehensively establish that IDRF is `a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India`. Full text.

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Thank you to all those who have taken the trouble to read the article and share their thoughts. Out of the arguments made here, there are two that perhaps need answering. So here they go.

1. The first part of the article compares outcomes (relative percentages of population of the religions concerned) irrespective of the process that led to those outcomes - whether immigration, relatively faster population growth or conversions. This was for two reasons. One, to put the figure of 2.3 per cent in "numerical perspective", as the article itself explained. The second reason was that outcomes are ultimately what the crux of debate is about. The rest of the article in any case dealt with process - or conversions in this case, from both a contemporary and historical perspective.

2. Some commenters have tried to cast doubts on the reliability of Census 2001. Those who do this should bear in mind that Census 2001 was conducted by a BJP government. Considering the extreme importance that BJP gives to this issue, it would be reasonable to expect that IF it had perceived a problem with the methodology that was distorting the numbers, it would have fixed it. As the article mentioned, BJP or BJP-supported governments have been in power for 10 of the last 40 years, or about a quarter of the time, and the only reasonable conclusion one can arrive at is that any misreporting of numbers, real or perceived, would be marginal and hence, not of importance.

To all other arguments made, my answer is the following: Please read the article again, with particular focus on the quotations of Vivekananda and Monier Williams, and the history of the missionary efforts in Bengal and their outcome.

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Way back in July, we did a story on the RSS links of the IDRF-funded organisations that elicited vociferous denials from the RSS and IDRF. An independent report released to the press on Nov 20 seeks now to conclusively and comprehensively establish that IDRF is `a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India`. Full text.

Way back in July, we did a story on the RSS links of the IDRF-funded organisations that elicited vociferous denials from the RSS and IDRF. An independent report released to the press on Nov 20 seeks now to conclusively and comprehensively establish that IDRF is `a major conduit of funds for Hindutva organizations in India`. Full text.